Belief in the existence of a maximally great being is more plausible than belief
in its non-existence.

The existence of a maximally great being is possible.

I am not happy with this as it is not clear enough. God is this being and God is
not a being or a spirit but the being or the spirit. This is so that we are not
saying God is just another entity in the universe.

My modification is, The existence of THE maximally great SPIRIT is possible. I
will put aside my preference for changing this further to, That Spirit than
which a greater cannot be conceived.

Is it more than possible, that is, plausible?

The answer is yes. The maximally great spirit by definition is not a complicated
physical entity. Indeed physical entities need to be put together and kept
together. For example, as great as a man may be, if he is dissembled in a car
crash he is not great any more. A being that has parts must depend on other
things to exist and to stay the way it is. Christians believe that God is a
simple being that is not composed of parts but is pure spirit and is an
immaterial reality. God then depends on nothing outside himself. God then to be
great must be non-physical (that does not mean he canít take on a human nature
without detriment to his divine nature).

My own mind is a similar simple and united entity though I have many different
thoughts and feelings and experiences. This shows me that the concept of a
simple entity being a mind is not absurd.

The concept of God as maximally great spirit is rational. That means it contains
no incoherence or self-contradiction. Thus there is no reason to not believe. It
makes sense to believe just in case. We fail to respect the being if we do not
believe. Also we deprive ourselves of enjoying a relationship with this being.
If we take a chance, we will soon see signs that the being really exists. We
will see that we are engaged in a relationship with a person and not just an
idea. God has to reveal himself when we have a relationship with him.

The existence of the maximally great spirit is a unique claim. It is the claim
that an all-powerful and all intelligent and all perfect and all-simple being,
to name but a few attributes, exists. When we understand that the being will
have all these properties we see how sensible it is to suppose that this being
exists. For example, if the being is not perfectly intelligent then it is not
maximally great.

We cannot argue: there could be a maximally great unicorn and there we may
suppose such an entity exists. The unicorn would be a created being and would
not really be maximally great.

God is a concept that is coherent. It is a nice concept. And simple. The
alternative just creates difficulties and problems. If we accept the simplest
adequate view we are doing the sensible thing. Belief in God is plausible.

THE REFUTATION:

The human mind makes errors about good and evil all the time. The argument can
only apply to a person who knows exactly what a maximally great being is.
Otherwise the person is using the words without meaning. We all have limitations
so such people do not exist.

You would need to be able to prove spirit really exists. And you would need to
prove that being spirit is good. In fact, Christians say we hope to rise again
implying that surviving death as a spirit is undesirable and inadequate. It is
only good because the alternative is non-existence. That would be a negative
goodness. It is not a positive goodness. So it might not be good to be a spirit.
It could be a case of being wanting to do things and being unable to without
having a body. Or it could be a case where you have no brain or nerves and no
feelings and just float around aimlessly. A spirit God as a spirit God, cannot
suffer for others. God is said to have become man in Jesus Christ. But that is
different. He had to take on an additional nature in order to do it.

Christians say that God is infinite in all perfections. He is perfect without
putting it to any use. He doesn't even have to create unless he chooses to. He
would still be perfect. This is rubbish. God might be perfect in his own way.
But what about other kinds of goodness? Religion likes to claim that God is the
ultimate source of all goodness. Imagine a mother and child could exist by
chance and without being made by God. Surely her love for her child would
deserve more praise than God's for it exists by chance and she continues it? She
creates it. She creates it against the grain - there is no God to help her. Love
produced without the assistance of God is the best love of all. Love against the
grain is the most authentic love. Atheism no matter what flaws it has or how
much it is abused or misused by atheists, does open the door to real goodness.

Christians say that God by definition as perfect does not mean that God is
perfect in his own way. For Christians, God is the source of all perfection.
Thus belief in God is incoherent. We have seen how it is nonsense to imagine
that the Christian God can be really perfect in every way in himself. Remember
the mother in the atheistic universe. She might be hypothetical, but you would
insult her even if she were not. What does that say about you?